The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) Disk 2 - Xvid 1cd - Subs-Eng-Sp- Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd [DDR]

The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 epic film starring Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer and Omar Sharif. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston, with a screenplay by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan.

The film was a financial failure at the box-office. However, it is considered unusually intelligent and thoughtful for a film of the contemporary sword and sandal genre and also enjoys a 100% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

The film's name is a misnomer, as actually the Roman Empire survived for centuries after the period depicted in the film - even though historians consider it the beginning of Rome's decline.

CAST:-
Sophia Loren 	Lucilla
Christopher Plummer 	Commodus
Alec Guinness 	Marcus Aurelius
James Mason 	Timonides
Stephen Boyd 	Livius
Anthony Quayle 	Verulus
John Ireland 	Ballomar
Omar Sharif 	Sohaemus, King of Armenia
Mel Ferrer 	Cleander
Eric Porter 	Julianus
Finlay Currie 	Senator
Andrew Keir 	Polybius
Douglas Wilmer 	Pescennius Niger
George Murcell 	Victorinus
Norman Wooland 	Virgilianus

Directed by Anthony Mann
Produced by Samuel Bronston
Written by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina, Philip Yordan
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Running time 188 minutes

MOVIE PLOT:- The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
In the winter of 180 A.D., the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (Guinness) fights to keep Germanic barbarians from invading his northern territories on the Danube frontier. His deputies are the Greek ex-slave Timonides (Mason), a closet Christian, and the stern and honest general Gaius Livius (Boyd). Livius has close connections with the imperial family, being the lover of Aurelius' philosopher daughter Lucilla (Loren) and a friend of her brother Commodus (Plummer). Nevertheless, he is amazed to hear that Aurelius wants to make him his heir. Despite his military obligations the emperor has egalitarian ideals, dreaming of a day when Rome grants equal rights to men of all nations. He knows that he will not live to achieve this end, and trusts Livius to do so more than his charismatic but brutal son. The discovery that his father has effectively disinherited him hurts Commodus immensely, and damages the almost brotherly relationship he had enjoyed with Livius.

Aurelius summons all the governors of the Roman empire to his headquarters, intending to announce Livius' future accession. Before he can do so he is poisoned by Commodus' cronies, who hope to secure their own political future by putting their friend on the throne. Sure enough, Livius feels that a non-aristocrat such as himself would never be accepted as emperor without Aurelius' explicit backing; he lets his old friend take the position instead. Commodus, who was not part of the murder plot, is left feeling helplessly angry at his deceased father. He dedicates himself to undoing all Aurelius' policies; this involves blatant favoritism towards Rome and Italy, which are enriched by ferocious taxation of the provinces that were to be their equals.

Meanwhile Livius' army scores an important victory on the frontier, capturing the German chieftain Ballomar and his aides. Timonides wins the Germans' trust by successfully undergoing an ordeal, having his hand thrust in a fire; with his help, Livius decides to put Aurelius' policy into effect despite disapproval from Commodus. Lucilla helps convince Livius to defy the emperor, since she loved her father as much as Commodus hates him. A speech by Timonides persuades the Roman Senate to let the German captives become peaceful farmers on Italian land, thereby encouraging their fellow barbarians to cooperate with Rome instead of fighting it. Commodus is furious, and sends Livius back to his frontier post in what is effectively a sentence of banishment. Lucilla is forced to go to Armenia, with whose king she shares a loveless political marriage.

Commodus is compelled to recall Livius in order to put down a rebellion by Rome's eastern provinces. When he arrives at the sight of the unrest, Livius is horrified to find that Lucilla is behind it. She tries to persuade him to join her in making a splinter state, free of her brother's influence, but he feels that Roman civilization will collapse if it is broken into pieces. The issue is settled in an unexpected manner when Lucilla's husband calls in Rome's archenemy the Persians to help the rebelling forces fight Livius. The sight of the dreaded Persian cavalry so panics the defecting Romans that they go back over to Livius, swelling his army and allowing him to score an immense victory. The king of Armenia is killed, and Commodus sends word that Livius is to be made joint ruler of Rome. The condition for this reward, however, is that Livius is to wreak hideous punishments on the populations of the disloyal provinces.

Rejecting this latest piece of brutality, Livius and Lucilla take their army to Rome and order Commodus to abdicate. He responds by bribing away the soldiers' loyalty and massacring Timonides and the population of the German colony (the latter action ensuring centuries of future hostility between Romans and Germans). The fawning Senate declares Commodus a god, and Livius and Lucilla are sentenced to be burned alive as human sacrifices to the new deity. This victory for Commodus is accompanied by a terrible private discovery—he is not of royal blood, being the product of illicit sex between his promiscuous mother Faustina Minor and Commodus' bodyguard and [[gladiator] Verulus]. His mind unhinged by this, Commodus makes the bizarre decision of challenging Livius to a duel for the throne. The two fight with javelins in the Roman Forum, and Livius eventually runs Commodus through. The Senate hastily offer to make Livius emperor, but he refuses; the Roman government is now too corrupt for him to fix. He slips away with Lucilla, leaving Commodus' old advisers to bicker about who will take the emperor's place.

A voice-over epilogue states that this political infighting continued for the rest of Roman history, leading to the imperial government's eventual collapse.

CASTING NOTES:-
It was envisioned that Charlton Heston would be cast as Livius, but he turned it down after finding out that Sophia Loren would be the leading lady. (Heston had co-starred with Loren in El Cid and had not got on well with her. Thus, he had no desire to work with her again.) The part had also been offered to Kirk Douglas, who turned it down as well. Stephen Boyd, who played opposite to Heston in Ben-Hur, ultimately got the part.

Richard Harris was originally cast as Commodus, but he was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Harris would later play the role of Marcus Aurelius in the 2000 film Gladiator.

Alec Guinness was cast as Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and during the production he became good friends with Sophia Loren. On an evening out Loren persuaded Guinness to dance "The Twist" with her, which he did for the first time in his life. On the flight to Spain, one of the film's writers struck up a conversation with Guinness after seeing him working with the script; the actor stated that he disliked his lines and was rewriting them before starting memorization.

Sara Montiel was offered the role of Lucilla but turned it down. Loren, who took the part, was the highest paid cast member at $1 million.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 371 kbps
Video Resolution: 640x272
Video Aspect Ratio: 2.353:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Bitrate: 448kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams:  6
Audio Languages: English
RunTime 96 mins
Subtitles: English, Espanol
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]